ip topEy up….it’s Yorkshire Day! Yorkshire Day has been around for 41 years and simply put, it promotes God’s own county…Yorkshire, the northern English country of the white rose! The first incidence of this celebratory day took place on August 1st,1974, in Beverley. It was originally set up by the Yorkshire Ridings Society to protest…

Having worked with businesses across Yorkshire, we have developed Award Winning Social Media campaigns for clients including Great British High Street of the Year 2015 – Bishy Road, Browns Department Stores and Skosh. Creating a great Instagram campaign is like any other Marketing Strategy. It always takes more effort than you think, and needs to be well…

We regularly take part in Twitter hours/chats and promote twitter hours as something all our clients should use to find like-minded people having conversations on Twitter about a topic or interest. A Twitter hour/chat is an event set up on Twitter that allows users to contribute by using a # (hashtag) to a…

Another month, another batch of social media updates….here are a few of the key changes that we feel you should be aware of! GDPR & SOCIAL MEDIA You’ve probably been inundated with emails referring to the new privacy law, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) that came into force on 25th May 2018. This…

It is clear that social media has changed the digital world dramatically, so much so that we now communicate with one another and brands in such a different way than we used to. Having the majority of existing and potential customers online in one environment means that brands can reach out to them more easily,…

York is abundant with thriving, independent businesses, which we believe act as the cornerstone of the community and help to preserve York’s charm and uniqueness. Don’t get us wrong, we can all appreciate the ease of a chain of retailer or eatery, you know what you’re getting and how much it will cost. However, when…

Crisis management: the process by which an organisation deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public, seriously interrupt business, damage reputation and/or negatively impact the bottom line. We have recently attended several lectures and workshops on crisis management which has influenced this blog post.…

Whether it’s to get cheerful on the international day of happiness or to embrace your inner laziness on national relaxation day, you can be sure that the internet and its users are almost always celebrating some sort of holiday.

Sharing content via social media is more valuable than ever for audience engagement and marketing success, with such a vast amount of content being generated and uploaded to the internet every day, even every second, there is a lot of competition to get your content noticed and to stand out from the crowd! Did you know that people process visuals 60,000 times faster than plain text? That’s just ONE of many reasons to make sure you are including visuals in your Social Media plan!

It’s already mid-March and 2018 is flying by, so here we are again for our monthly round-up of the latest social media changes you need to know about! Facebook Power Editor has GONE! If you’re someone who regularly places Facebook Adverts, you will have seen that they have now got rid of ‘Power…

Want to get your Marketing hopping this Easter? Take advantage of this seasonal time of year and make your marketing egg-cellent! Here are a few of our favourite marketing ideas for this egg-citing time of year. Create your own Easter Egg Hunt There are many ways you can put on an Easter egg…

Graphic sizes for social media platforms seem to be ever-changing, the struggle is real! Whether it’s for a news update, brand promotion, video or a quote, visual aids play a major role in the success of conveying your brand through social media.

It’s time for our round-up of the latest social media updates from this month. From developments on Instagram stories to a new Facebook algorithm, if you use social media for your business, here are some updates you need to know… INSTAGRAM STORIES Instagram have been focusing on the ‘stories’ feature on the…

Have you just started a business or simply want to be more involved in the York business scene? We are lucky to have a strong community of business owners that regularly come together to meet and support one another through various networking events in York. One simple conversation can lead to so many different paths,…

It’s always important to make the most out of seasonal events that happen throughout the year, particularly big ones such as Valentine’s Day. It’s a chance for you to get a little more creative and help make your brand stand out from your competitors. We’ve created a list of 4 different marketing ideas that…

Twitter is a brilliant platform and one in which we believe has helped Pick & Mix Marketing become the success that it is today. This platform is perfect for engaging in conversation and should not be used to just push messages out. Here are our top 15 twitter tips for beginners: The more tweeting you…

Social Media Changes It’s only the beginning of 2018 and so many things have changed in the world of social media already! Are you struggling to keep up to date with them? We’ve created a quick round-up of the most important ones you should know about this month: 1. Facebook Adverts Choose where…

Now is a good time for companies to take a look at their digital strategies. We’ve been talking a lot about the importance of building a solid strategy and are even running an event in a couple of weeks in Partnership with Make it York to help get the year off right. We believe a…

Looking to update your knowledge on Social Media in 2018? Our Pick & Mix Marketing training sessions, workshops, talks, events and seminars can help your business find its Social Media Sweet Spot and help achieve your Social Media and Marketing goals. Why not come along and meet the team at one of the events we are attending…

We’ve just heard that we’ve been accepted into the UK Blog Awards. We’re excited to see if we can get to the finals and possibly win an award at the UK Blog Awards event. We’ve entered the Pick & Mix Marketing Blog into the UK Blog Awards 2018 for the following categories: PR, Digital Media,…

Create Cracking Christmas Social Media! The countdown to Christmas is well and truly on and what easier way to showcase your business than with social media. Give your audiences the best social media posts of the year! It’s time to inject some creativity into your posts and add some festive cheer into your daily updates…

From virtual reality talks to SEO lessons from Google, our day in Manchester at Smarter Business Tech Live in November included a variety of topics and learning curves, all of which have become very beneficial to our day to day tasks. We all know the world of digital marketing can change daily, hourly…

We all know how quick the world of social media changes, it’s hard to keep up even when working on the platforms daily (believe us!). Below is a summary that we have created with the latest updates from the main channels (as of November 2017), hopefully allowing you to be kept in the loop of…

Here are some of our best achievements to date, both for our clients and as a business! We celebrated our 6th Birthday! We’ve seen one of our fabulous clients Skosh gain local and national PR coverage including a review from the renowned food critic Jay Raynor – you can read it here. We ran a marketing campaign…

Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us…… Pick & Mix Marketing is this week celebrating its sixth birthday! And what a fantastic journey it’s been since Sally, the founder started out on her own. Sally started Pick & Mix Marketing alone in 2011 from a desk at home, now with an office and…

Pick & Mix Marketing go LIVE for York Business Week! Is your Social Media feeling under the weather? Our Social Media Surgery, hosted live by our team of experts is the perfect time to ask those burning questions, and pick and mix the perfect remedy to revitalise and fight off the social blues! We will…

The forever changing world of social media makes it difficult to keep up with the newest features and updates, so we’ve rounded up the biggest 4 to allow you to keep in the loop of the world of social media: INSTAGRAM Instagram have brought in a new feature which allows users…

Let’s rewind 8 months when the Great North Run ballot opened and I thought, “hey, I could do a half marathon, there’s plenty of time to train and what a great challenge for 2017!” in the back of my mind also thinking, “I’ll never get a place so there’s nothing to lose!”, fast-forward to the…

My Day: Becca Cammidge Role: Marketing Account Executive Likes: Fashion, dogs and chocolate! Dislikes: Morning traffic and negative people Favourite thing about the job: The fact that no 2 days are the same! Diary entries: 7.30 As soon as the alarm goes off, I am up! I find it much easier to get up as…

In the last Google Analytics blog we talked about the dashboard, and in this second blog we are going to focus on the ‘All traffic’ category of the acquisition section of the dashboard. When you look at the acquisition section you can drill down into traffic, Adwords, search console, social and campaigns, but we will…

Social Media Updates We all know how quick the world of social media changes, it’s hard to keep up even when working on the platforms daily (believe us!). Below is a summary that we have created with the latest updates from the main channels (as of August 2017), hopefully allowing you to be kept in…

My Day: Sally Parker Role: Managing Director Likes: Horses, Yorkshire Tea, House Music, Mojitos, Spending time with Friends Family and Crisps (any size, flavour or shape just lots of crisps!) Dislikes: Traffic jams, being hungry and rude people. Favourite thing about the job: Having a wonderful team who are just amazing, and working with brilliant…

My Day: Jess Valenghi Role: Marketing Account Manager Likes: Travelling and exploring new places, live music, getting muddy at festivals and my biggest love…. cheese and wine! Dislikes: Traffic jams, early mornings and people that dawdle! Favourite thing about the job: Watching businesses succeed and helping to be a part of it! Diary…

Google Analytics quite simply is one of the most powerful tools we marketers can use to analyse and gain insight into our web traffic. If you are a regular Google Analytics user you may have noticed that the dashboard has recently been updated to make it more user friendly, if you are a novice then…

Have you ever heard of Canva? Used by millions of people around the world, Canva is a delight in the world of marketing for those that are not so expert in using design programmes such as Photoshop or Illustrator. It is an online programme that allows you to design professional layouts and stunning graphics that…

3 New Social Media Features Here’s 3 new social media features that could help develop your content and raise your brand profile event further. LinkedIn layout The social media network for professionals had made a big change by rolling out a completely new layout. This new layout is like Facebook and now provides an instant…

As you may or may not think, my first week at Pick & Mix Marketing as an Accounts Executive was one of great variety! No two days were the same, but that was one of the best things about it. Having completed my degree in Fashion Marketing just 3 weeks before starting at Pick &…

Unless you have hours of time on your hands then it’s difficult keeping up with all the latest updates to Facebook. So, to help you we’ve pulled together the latest updates that we think you need to know. There are now 1.94 billion monthly active users on Facebook Video Cover Images More content…

Need Help with your Facebook business page? Are you wondering what to do with your business Facebook profile? Do you have a Facebook profile but are confused about what to post, when to post or even how to post? Then our Facebook 1:1 training sessions are just what you need! They are tailored to…

My Day Role: Marketing and Analytics Executive Likes: An eclectic mix of music, good quality strong coffee, travelling to Europe, handbags Dislikes: The dark, spiders, arrogant people and busy cities Career highlight: One of my greatest achievements thus far is gaining exposure for our client Marbletree on National TV; on ITV’s This Morning programme. In…

This month we’ve been looking at creating social media policies for businesses and we’ve taken this opportunity to ask Denise Jennings from Athena HR to create a guest blog with her expert advice. It’s tricky finding the middle ground between policing what your employees are posting on social media and managing the way they represent…

Earlier this month we were one of the lucky few to be invited to the VIP event at the brand new Carluccio’s restaurant in York. The evening was not only to celebrate the grand launch of the venue but to raise a glass for the man himself, Antonio Carluccio, to toast his 80th birthday! The…

Hi, I’m Abbey, a 21 year old undergraduate student at York St John University. As my second year comes to a close, there are only a few weeks before I enter my third and final year of university. This comes with a scary realisation that my student bubble will soon burst and I will have…

Less than a year on and Skosh simply oozes a sense of coolness and confidence To celebrate a successful first quarter of 2017 at Pick & Mix Marketing we decided to treat ourselves to a team meal out. Skosh was the obvious choice when selecting a venue for our celebrations, having worked alongside Neil and…

Are you looking to keep on top of social media and the ever-changing landscape of digital? Here are our top 5 social media blogs/websites that we think you should follow! 1) Social Media Examiner – “Your guide to the social media jungle” and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Specifically, for social media, this site…

When you’re investing time and money into an activity you want to understand the value and ROI it provides. Here are 2 social media metrics you should track: 1: Referral Traffic We always discuss with clients that it’s one thing to build up a social community on sites like Twitter and Facebook, but it’s how…

The top 5 reasons why we feel you should be using social media for business are: Social proof Consumers are more and more savvy about what products they purchase, whom and where from. People will take the time to research online before making a purchase. By having a social media presence that is both engaging…

Many businesses set off using social media and after a few months of posting each day and trying to understand if it is working they are left scratching their head and feeling frustrated with the lack of results. To prevent this situation from occurring we would always recommend creating a social media marketing plan before diving…

1) Get Help from Yoast When it comes to SEO it can be tricky and can take a while to learn the best way to optimise your content. One of the best tools that we’ve found for helping to get a handle on SEO (if you are WordPress user) is Yoast SEO for WordPress Plugin. It…

With the average child receiving £56.00 worth of Easter Eggs (Dailymail.co.uk), it’s no wonder thousands of businesses compete for sales over the Easter Holiday. According to the Evening Standard the UK Chocolate Easter egg market is worth £220 million; yet these figures are just the tip of the iceberg as many non-Easter related companies use…

Mother’s Day is coming up —have you planned your promotions yet? Here are 9 ways to engage with your customers and make the most of the Mother’s Day marketing opportunity! Send a promotion via email If you sell directly — flowers, beauty or spa services/products, gifts etc, you should be sending out some email marketing…

With 317 million monthly users on Twitter, now is the time to really harness the power of the site and start getting results for your business. There are many strategies you could choose and you will need to test a few to create the best approach and method for your business. Here are our…

Marbletree’s brand awareness was given the ‘ice step they wanted with a helping hand from Pick & Mix Marketing and the power of TV Marbletree’s Christmas wish list was to have product placement in national and regional glossy magazines, and national TV. With the support and dedication of the team at Pick & Mix Marketing,…

February is the month of love, but do you love your marketing? If you don’t why would anyone else? Marketing is personal to your brand, just like your traits are personal to you and the main purpose of marketing is attracting new customers and retaining current ones (something that many brands forget about). To ensure…

A Social Media Management Tool to make your life a little bit easier! Let’s look at why social media management tools are so important, introduce Hootsuite and then look at the features and benefits of using the software. Why use a social media management tool? Social Media is 24/7 and requires time and effort. The…

Skosh – “a little” goes a long way for York restaurant, with a little touch of Pick & Mix Marketing help! A highlight of 2016 for the team at Pick & Mix Marketing was working with the fantastic Neil Bentinck on the launch of his first, brand new restaurant, Skosh. The name Skosh came from…

Freebird Events – York brother’s celebrate a decade of business with a National Championship! You’ve probably heard of Yorkshire’s Brownlee brothers, but not so many of you will know Yorkshire’s “Other Triathlon Brothers”, Peter and Paul Mathieson founders of Freebird Events based in York. They might not be as well-known, but they are definitely ones…

LinkedIn remains the number one B2B social network with over 467 million members active on it (in the third quarter of 2016). It is an important site for individuals looking for a career change or progression and also for brands looking to promote their skills and services to like-minded professionals. Some of the key changes…

In 2017 York and tourism fit together just like York and the railways or York and chocolate did in the 19th century. This beautiful and historic city of ours, and some amazing countryside nearby, continue to attract visitors from around the UK as well as from overseas, whether their first language is English, Chinese, Spanish,…

With 2017 fast approaching, it’s the perfect time to look back on social media developments of the last year and look ahead to see where we, as businesses and individuals, should be focusing our time online. No-one can predict the future but we can certainly make educated guesses based on developments on some platforms.…

For most people, New Year is the time to decide on a resolution or to make a change with something that they are not happy with or feel could be better. A marketing strategy is something that is often renewed or changed in January for the same reasons. HOWEVER this shouldn’t always necessarily be the…

It’s been another year to celebrate at Pick & Mix Marketing and as we wrap up all our hard work for the Christmas break we want to say a great big thank you to all our loyal customers, valued associates, suppliers, friends and family! We’ve achieved great things during 2016, including writing stories that have been shared locally & nationally across newspapers, TV…

Twitter now has 317 million monthly active users, so you can see how some businesses are harnessing this to gain real results for their business. However, with all these users you may be wondering how your brand can stand out to be seen amongst such big numbers? Many brands are creating and posting content…

It’s almost Christmas and the Pick & Mix Marketing team have been pondering our communal wish list for the festive season. Here’s what we’ve come up with – 12 things we hope our clients past, future and present can bear in mind so we can do an even better job in 2017. We hope everyone…

Christmas is nearly upon us and the festive period for most businesses brings an increase in customers/sales and increased revenue. You don’t want to miss out on any of it by not being prepared. Social media marketing is an essential part of Christmas marketing preparation, and that includes Instagram. Create a Christmas themed content…

Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us……Pick & Mix Marketing is this week celebrating its fifth birthday! What a fantastic journey it’s been since Sally, the founder and boss, started out on her own. Now there are five of us, and a whole host of clients! Just 40% of new UK businesses make it to…

Our Ten Top Tips for a successful Festive Marketing Campaign! PLAN. Make a plan several weeks prior to the offer/event to give you plenty of time to promote the campaign. Allowing plenty of time for planning means you can be sure the offer/event is designed to target your potential customers as effectively as possible. CREATE.…

Like tea and biscuits or scones and jam, food and social media go hand in hand nowadays. Any business in the food & drink sector that doesn’t jump on the social media bandwagon is perhaps a brave or foolhardy one, and one that is almost certainly missing out on opportunities. Countless hundreds of millions…

BREXIT CHALLENGES FACING YORKSHIRE FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRY – BUT IT’S NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM! “It’s important as we face Brexit that the food and drink industry comes together.” Wise words indeed from Ian Wright CBE, the director-general of the Food & Drink Federation, a key speaker at York’s very first Food and Drink…

This year we gave ourselves the challenge of writing a marketing tip EVERY DAY on Twitter for all of our lovely customers! Here is month 1 of the tips from back in January… The environment is constantly changing so ensure you keep up with relevant industry news. #Marketingtip1 Giving something away helps build trust helping…

HOW TO GET YOUR PRESS RELEASE SEEN – AND HOPEFULLY USED! News editors usually get countless press releases in their inboxes. So how can you ensure your own one will be read and actually used? The simple answer is: you can’t ever guarantee it. An absolutely brilliant press release about the most amazing story might…

There are 1.55 billion active Facebook users Worldwide 1 in every 7 minutes online is spent on Facebook 2 billion+ pieces of content are shared each day on Facebook 1 in 3 professionals have a LinkedIn profile There are also 320 million monthly active users on Twitter Over 500 million tweets are sent out each…

After hearing how York Against Cancer contributes to the local community and supports patients and families through difficult times, Pick & Mix decided they wanted to help in any way they could. Most people have been touched in some way through cancer whether it be themselves, a friend, family member or colleague, we decided we…